Upon arriving in Bangkok, Ãcariya Mun went to stay
at Wat Boromaniwat monastery, following the
instructions telegrammed from Somdet Phra Mahã
Wirawong. Before he departed for Udon Thani, many
people came to see him at Wat Boromaniwat with
questions. Some of these questions were rather
unusual, so I have decided to include them.

Question: “I understand that you maintain only one
rule instead of the full 227 monastic rules that all
other monks keep. Is that true?”

Ãcariya Mun: “Yes, I maintain only the one rule.”

Question: “Which one do you maintain?”

Ãcariya Mun: “My mind.”

Question: “So, you don’t maintain all 227 rules?”

Ãcariya Mun: “I maintain my mind by not allowing any
wrong thoughts, speech, or actions that would
violate the prohibitions laid down by the Buddha, be
they 227 in number or even more than that. Those who
doubt whether or not I maintain the 227 monastic
rules can think and say what they please. As for me,
from the day of my ordination I have always
maintained strict control over my mind, as it is the
master of body and speech.”

Question: “You mean we have to maintain our minds in
order to maintain the moral precepts?”

Ãcariya Mun: “What else would you maintain to
develop good moral virtue, if not your mind? Only
the dead have no need to look after their minds,
much less their actions and speech. The wise have
never claimed that dead people have a moral bias, it
being impossible for corpses to show willful intent.
If corpses did have morality, then it would be a
dead and useless one. But I am not a corpse, so I
cannot maintain a dead man’s morality. I must do
what befits one fully endowed with both good and
evil tendencies – I must maintain my mind in moral
virtue.”

Question: “I’ve heard it said that keeping our
actions and speech in good order is called morality,
which lead me to understand that it’s not really
necessary to look after the mind. That’s why I
asked.”

Ãcariya Mun: “It is quite true that morality entails
keeping our actions and speech in good order. But
before we can put our actions and speech in good
moral order, we must consider the source of moral
virtue. It originates with the master of body and
speech – the mind – which makes them behave
properly. Once we have established that the mind is
the determining factor, we must ascertain how it
relates to action and speech so that they stay in
good moral order that is a source of comfort to us
and others alike. It’s not only moral virtue that
the mind must deal with. The mind supervises the
performance of every activity we engage in, making
sure that it’s done in a proper, orderly fashion to
produce excellent results each time.

“Treating an illness requires diagnosing its cause,
then devising an effective cure before it develops
into a chronic condition. Taking care of morality
requires the mind to be in effective control.
Otherwise, the result will be tarnished morality
that’s patchy, and full of holes. Such splintered,
inconsistent virtue is truly pitiful. It moves
people to live an aimless existence and inevitably
causes an adverse effect on the entire religion.
Besides that, it’s not a source of comfort to the
person practicing it, nor is it admired by his
peers.

“I have never done much studying. After I ordained,
my teacher took me as a wandering monk into the
mountains and forests. I learned Dhamma from the
trees and grasses, the rivers and the streams, the
cliffs and the caves. I learned it from the sounds
of birds and wild animals, from the natural
environment around me. I didn’t study the scriptures
long enough to become well-versed in the teaching on
moral virtue; and my answers to your questions
tend to reflect that primitive education. I
feel rather inadequate for my inability to provide
answers that would be suitably eloquent for your
edification.”

Question: “What is the nature of morality and what
constitutes genuine moral virtue?”

Ãcariya Mun: “Being mindfully aware of our
thoughts; knowing which things are appropriate to
think about and which are not; taking care how we
express ourselves by way of body, speech, and mind;
controlling these three factors so that they remain
within the confines of what is morally
acceptable. By properly adhering to these
conditions we can be confident that the moral nature
of our behavior is exemplary and we are never unruly
or offensive. Apart from such exemplary conduct in
body, speech, and mind, it’s difficult to say what
genuine moral virtue is, since it’s impossible to
separate its practice from the person who maintains
it. They are not
distinct entities, like a house and its owner – the
house on one hand, the owner on another.
Trying to distinguish between moral virtue and the
person who maintains it is very problematic, so I
wouldn’t want to do it. Even the peace of mind
resulting from the practice of moral virtue cannot
actually be separated from that moral virtue. If
morality could be isolated in this manner, it would
probably have been on sale in the stores long ago.
In such a case, people’s moral virtue would probably
become a lucrative target for thieves to steal and
sell off to the highest bidder, leaving many people
totally deprived. Like all other possessions, moral
virtue would then become a source of anxiety. It
would cause Buddhists to become weary of striving
for it, and insecure about holding onto their
acquisition. Consequently, the inability to know
what precisely constitutes genuine moral virtue is a
way to avoid the dangers arising from moral issues,
thus allowing virtuous individuals a clever way to
gain peace of mind. Being very wary of the inherent
dangers, I have never thought of separating myself
from the moral virtue that I practice. Those
unwilling to make this separation remain content
wherever they go, whatever they do, for they never
have to worry about losing their moral virtue. Those
who see it as something separate from themselves
might worry so much that they end up coming back as
ghosts after death to anxiously watch over their
store of accumulated virtue. It would be like dying
people who fret about their wealth, and therefore,
get stuck in a frame of mind where they return as
ghosts to keep anxious watch over their accumulated
riches.”